Firefighters hold massive training exercise in Birmingham

75 Firefighters from community fire stations around Birmingham have been taking part in a major emergency services training exercise on Sunday 20 May at one of the city's most prominent conference venues.

Fifteen fire appliances with supporting crews are set to gather at the International Convention Centre in Broad Street, Birmingham, for the exercise which will involve firefighters wearing breathing apparatus searching the tunnel complex beneath the ICC in order to find a firefighter acting as a casualty.

Firefighters will also be joined by colleagues from West Midlands Ambulance Services Hazard Area Response Team (HART) who will be helping to treat the injured firefighter.

Crew Commander Richard Anderson who is leading the exercise said:

"The tunnels at the ICC provide another great opportunity for us to test our breathing apparatus procedures in deep basement areas. It will be very dark and we will have to use our guide lines to find our way around.

"Rescuing and treating the casualty will also put our collaborative working procedures to the test in such arduous conditions, so we welcome the chance to work with our colleagues at the WMAS HART on this and are grateful to the management and staff at the ICC for allowing us to make use of their facilities in this way."

The ICC is not far from where the American track team will be staying in the run up to the Olympics.